Backing up data by disk usage

Specify the virtual machine disks that you want to include or exclude for backup services by setting include and exclude options.

Before you begin

Review the backup-archive client domain.vmfull, include.vmdisk, and exclude.vmdisk options in Client options reference.

About this task

To include virtual machines in your full virtual machine image backup operations, use the domain.vmfull option.

To include a virtual machine disk in a Backup VM operation, use the include.vmdisk option.

To exclude a virtual machine's disk from a Backup VM operation, use the exclude.vmdisk option.

Use these options for virtual disks that do not require backup. For example, use the options for those virtual disks that contain data that does not need to be restored, or the data is preserved by another backup mechanism.

Restriction: A virtual disk excluded from the backup operation is considered as deleted from the VM for that backup. If the VM is restored from that backup, the excluded virtual disk is not restored. Only the disk definition is restored.

Procedure

Start a backup-archive client command-line session:
- Open a command prompt and change to the backup-archive client installation directory. For example:
```
cd "C:\Program Files\tivoli\tsm\baclient"
```
- Open a terminal window and change to the backup-archive client installation directory. For example:
```
cd /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin
```
Optional: View the disk name and label of the virtual disk by issuing the preview option. For example:
```
dsmc backup vm VM1 -preview
```
Exclude a virtual disk, set the exclude.vmdisk option in the Tivoli® Storage Manager backup-archive client dsm.opt options file. For example:
```
EXCLUDE.VMDISK VM1 "Hard Disk 3"
```
Issue the backup command:
```
dsmc backup vm VM1
```